5 Pitchers

[Crash Course]

The boys on YES on Sunday were commenting about the state of Yankee pitching with respect to the postseason. The thought there was that the Yankees only have 5 pitchers that they can rely on in the postseason - Duque, Moose, Lieber, Gordon and Rivera - and if they do anything in the postseason, it will be up to those five.

Here's the question - of all the postseason teams, how many teams have more than 5 very good pitchers that will touch the ball in the postseason?

[RascalJones]

I don't know, but Zambrano, Wood, Maddux, Clement, Prior is a nice start, if they can ever get it together. Toss in a couple relievers, and that's more than five. Although, I don't know if you can count on Prior this year.

Atlanta seems to never run out of arms. They look almost like they have about 8-10 good arms that are used frequently.

The Cardinals only led the bigs in ERA this year. 5-6 good relievers and Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Jason Marquis in the rotation. The loss of Chris Carpenter is big, however.

I think there are plenty of playoff teams with better, DEEPER, pitching than the Yankees this year.

[Crash Course]

The Cubs are a postseason team this year? :D

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Aside from the teams that RJ mentioned, no one has five really good pitchers.

The Twins have four: Santana, Radke, and Rincon setting up Nathan. Santana is not a proven post-season performer.

Boston has the same situation with Pedro. Everyone will be watching him in the 6th inning, if he makes it that far, to see if his arm falls off.

The league championships are the Yanks and Cards to lose.

[Crash Course]

So much of it will depend on match-ups, and the weather, to me.
If some team gets lucky with a key rainout, that might let them sneak in an extra start with Santana, or Schilling, or someone like that, and it could make or break a series.

When is hurricane season over?

[RascalJones]

The Cubs are a postseason team this year? :D


If the season ended yesterday, they're in.

[Crash Course]

Just by a 1/2 game..........

[Deep Blue]

Aside from the teams that RJ mentioned, no one has five really good pitchers.

Boston has the same situation with Pedro. Everyone will be watching him in the 6th inning, if he makes it that far, to see if his arm falls off.


I guess if Jon Lieber represents the bar for a really good pitcher to have in the post season, I'll take Pedro, Schilling, Arroyo, Foulke, Williamson, Timlin and Leskanic.......

[Crash Course]

Leskanic?
FWIW, check Lieber of recent, and not the season stats. He's been the Yankees best pitcher of late.

[Deep Blue]

Leskanic has also pitched pretty well. Lieber does not get enough good credit for how well he has pitched because his season stats drag.

Now if we can just get into the 9th inning against Mo down a run or so, I really like our chances :D Okay, maybe not, but he doesn't terrify us as much any more.

[RascalJones]

Just by a 1/2 game..........


And today, its a full game. They'd still be there.

[nyy26wc]

The boys on YES on Sunday were commenting about the state of Yankee pitching with respect to the postseason. The thought there was that the Yankees only have 5 pitchers that they can rely on in the postseason - Duque, Moose, Lieber, Gordon and Rivera - and if they do anything in the postseason, it will be up to those five.

They really actually said that?

For some reason, they were even more annoying over the weekend than usual. On a scale of 1 to 10, they are normally a 15 in annoyance, but they reached 20 over the weekend and I spent most it with the volume either so low I couldn't hear it, or just absolute muteness.

Most of what I've heard from them recently was how the Yankees pitching is so overflowing that everyone else would love to have so many choices that they can count on. That shows they are clearing watching a different team than everyone else. The one everyone else is watching ranks 9th in the league with -48 RSAA and is roughly closer to last in the league than they are to the league average.

[Crash Course]

It's true Lee, Kaat said it.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Just read an article in The Hardball Times: Carlos Silva is coming on strong for the Twinkies, that gives them three solid starters and a fine setup man and closer.

They may just give someone fits in the postseason.

[PianoMonkey]

I almost don't want to post this, but... heck, there are five pitchers with the ROYALS that I would consider solid (okay, 4 and a half): Shawn Camp, Jaime Cerda, D.J. Carrasco, Zack "The Greinke" Greinke, and Jeremy Affeldt.

The 1/2 is for Affeldt, whom I would personally feel very comfortable handing the ball over to, if only in relief, and as long as he understands that he's SUPPOSED to try to strike batters out. Somebody apparently told him to pitch to the bat earlier this year, and I want to kill that person (not really) (but sort of really). I think it was John Cumberland. Might have been Pena.

Obviously the Yankee's five have a bit better backgrounds on their resume, but as far as "go to guys" right now, I'd consider the above list agreeable.

[Jim Rice]

I guess if Jon Lieber represents the bar for a really good pitcher to have in the post season, I'll take Pedro, Schilling, Arroyo, Foulke, Williamson, Timlin and Leskanic.......

I'd drop Timlin from that list because September's been his only decent month of the second half, but no matter because Ramiro Mendoza (3.10 ERA, 1.03 WHIP), Mike Myers (3.55 ERA, 1.26 WHIP with Boston), and Alan Ambree (3.71 ERA, 1.12 WHIP since the All-Star break) would all qualify under that definition, too.

[BravesWin!]

I would say Atlanta has 5 pitchers whom I trust at this moment....
Wright (although we'll see how his injury turns out)
Smoltz
Alfonseca
Cruz
Hampton


Thomson and Byrd have been throwing very well of late as well. Gryboski has been very effective. I would say I would trust those 8 pitchers.

Ortiz and Reitsma give me heartache everytime I seem them in a game.